Piet Bakker, the blogger who devotes his site to charting the fortunes of free newspapers, is unimpressed with The Independent's decision to launch a 20p edition titled i.

He says the announcement that the new paper is to target a twenty-something "sounds familiar", arguing that "the title and concept seem to be very similar to a Portuguese newspaper... also called i."

Bakker's posting: The Indy's red i, left, and the Portugal black eye, right

It was launched in May 2009 with a print run of 100,000 and a cover price of €1, but the public demand for the paper was less than expected.

By the end of last year, paid circulation was around 15,000 and in May this year the launch editor quit. At the time, the paper was said to be looking for "cost control and revenue increase".

Bakker also refers to the Chicago experiments by the Tribune and the Sun-Times, which launched cheaper, paid-for editions (Red Streak and RedEye) to attract younger readers. Red Streak closed and RedEye went free.